Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The One is pictured as beautiful in every way — bright eyes, a kind face, a golden glow.
Keep that beauty in mind, and the fear of endings loses its grip.
You can be changed from something ordinary into something graceful — the heart made clean.
This verse (and the next) paints the beauty of the Beloved in loving, human detail — beautiful eyes, teeth, nose, long hair, a "body cast in gold," wearing a garland (the imagery borrows familiar devotional pictures, including of Krishna). Guru Nanak uses the language of beholding a beloved's beauty to express devotion. The landmark line is the transformation: baglaa hoay... hans — "from a crane you shall be transformed into a swan, and the filth of your mind removed." The crane and swan look alike, but the swan (in Indian poetry) is pure and discerning; devotion turns the ordinary crane into the luminous swan. For a child: keeping beauty and goodness in mind can change you from something ordinary into something graceful and clean.
What ordinary thing about you might become graceful and beautiful as you grow?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI